"Monocacy" is an Americanized version of the Shawnee word "Monnockkesy," which means "river of many bends," and the Monocacy River lives up to its name. Though my kayak glides calmly under my kayak through the opaque green water, I struggle to keep up with my guide, Andy Lett, recreation supervisor for the Frederick County Department of Parks and Recreation. Whenever I get the hang of things, dipping one oar and then another to propel myself in a relatively straight line, another curve arrives to confuse me, and I have to stop to change direction so I don't paddle right into the riverbank.

"Monocacy" is an Americanized version of the Shawnee word "Monnockkesy," which means "river of many bends," and the Monocacy River lives up to its name. Though my kayak glides calmly under my kayak through the opaque green water, I struggle to keep up with my guide, Andy Lett, recreation supervisor for the Frederick County Department of Parks and Recreation. Whenever I get the hang of things, dipping one oar and then another to propel myself in a relatively straight line, another curve arrives to confuse me, and I have to stop to change direction so I don't paddle right into the riverbank.

TANEYTOWN - The Monocacy River, meandering between Carroll and Frederick counties, needs people to continue the fight to keep its water clear as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay, a Frederick County biologist said.James H. Gilford, a former Environmental Protection Agency official who has been working for almost 20 years to keep the river clean, said a permanent group should be formed to watch out for the Monocacy."A board should be appointed to serve as an advocate for the river," he said Wednesday.

The Maryland Natural Resources Police has issued a warning to boaters and anglers to avoid the Upper Potomac River, including its swollen creeks and streams, through Monday. The advisory, issued Friday and based on information received from the National Weather Service and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, covers the river from Cumberland to Great Falls. It could be extended Monday afternoon, if necessary. The water levels pose a threat to non white-water vessels, tubers, anglers and other recreational users and are caused by wave action, water velocity and treacherous currents.

DETOUR -- In this one-street town at the confluence of Big Pipe and Little Pipe creeks in western Carroll County, the passing of time can be seen in the old photographs of floods mounted on the walls at the Village Store. One grainy black-and-white photograph shows the store's original incarnation as E. L. Warner's, with Emory Warner standing knee-deep in an Aug. 24, 1933, flood. Some are older, dating to soon after the store opened at the turn of the last century. "The snow is very little trouble, compared to the floods," said Roxanne Burrier, the store's current owner, pointing to one of the photographs.

Taneytown firefighters spent three hours early yesterday, working like cowboys to rescue 11 horses from a farm along the Monocacy River at Route 140."The horses were up to their necks in water," said firefighter Kevin Coons. "We had to swim to them with ropes and pull them to higher ground."Volunteers firefighters also helped rescue the farm owners, who declined to be identified."The family was pretty cold and shaken up, but they weren't going to leave their livestock," said Wayne Jones, a State Highway Administration employee.

The remnants of a 600-year-old Indian village on the banks of the Monocacy River in Frederick have given up thousands more bones and artifacts, but the arrangement of its houses and trash pits continues to puzzle archaeologists."

The small flotilla of kayaks and canoes glided easily into the wide, shallow riffles, momentarily disturbing the solitude of a bass fisherman standing waist-deep in the Monocacy River. Traffic noise from above on Devilbiss Bridge Road quickly faded, muffled by full-summer leaves and rocky outcrops, and replaced by the small splashes of paddles and large carp, or the drumming of a woodpecker. Pairs of Canada geese and mallards seemed to take wing around almost every bend. It was part of the second Monocacy River Paddle, a weeklong celebration by a Frederick-based conservation group that wraps up today and is intended to raise interest in one of the state's scenic rivers.

Delegate Donald B. Elliott, R-Carroll, Howard, is co-sponsoring legislation that offers recommendations for preserving and protecting theMonocacy River.House Bill 1123 will be voted on soon in the House Environmental Matters Committee.Called the "Monocacy River Study and Management Plan," the document serves as a guideline for the state and Carroll and Frederick counties to protect the river.The Monocacy meanders between the two counties and eventually empties into the Chesapeake Bay. It has been designated by the state as a "scenic river."

The howl of the wild grows louder in Maryland as coyotes -- nocturnal predators that were once restricted to the West -- move into the state's rural outposts from neighboring Pennsylvania and Virginia.Their population is unknown, but the number of coyote sightings and carcasses reported to state officials grows each year, said Peter Jayne, supervisor of the upland game and furbearer program of the state Department of Natural Resources."The list of sightings goes on for six pages," Mr. Jayne said.

Lefty Kreh is to fly-fishing what James Naismith was to basketball and, perhaps, what Elvis was to rock 'n' roll. Not only is the now 87-year-old Kreh credited with helping invent the sport in the late 1940s, he later popularized it by writing more than 30 books as well as writing an outdoors column, including an 18-year stint at The Baltimore Sun. On Monday, Kreh will be honored - begrudgingly - when a seven-mile trail at Gunpowder Falls State...

Standing behind the old brick Worthington House, visitors can look down the gently sloping hillside and picture the Civil War battle that likely saved the nation's capital from capture. Much of the farmland where Union soldiers fought that hot summer day in 1864 to delay a Confederate attack on Washington has been preserved as Monocacy National Battlefield. But the view from the Worthington farm, where the fighting began, appears fated to become less historic. A huge waste-to-energy plant is planned just across the Monocacy River from the 1,650-acre park — a project that has sparked criticism as the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. One hundred fifty feet tall, with a 270-foot smokestack, the facility will loom over the trees that hide areas where Confederate cavalry forded the river to assault Union infantry.

The rusty crayfish, a mud critter with extra large claws, has sneaked across the Mason-Dixon line from Pennsylvania into a pair of northern Maryland streams, where biologists worry that the invasive species will kill native fish and plants. State wildlife managers are tracking the southward creep of what some call the "king" of all crawdaddies down the Monocacy River in Frederick County and Conowingo Creek in Cecil County. Officials at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources think that the crayfish - often used as bait - are hitchhiking in the buckets of fishermen.

The small flotilla of kayaks and canoes glided easily into the wide, shallow riffles, momentarily disturbing the solitude of a bass fisherman standing waist-deep in the Monocacy River. Traffic noise from above on Devilbiss Bridge Road quickly faded, muffled by full-summer leaves and rocky outcrops, and replaced by the small splashes of paddles and large carp, or the drumming of a woodpecker. Pairs of Canada geese and mallards seemed to take wing around almost every bend. It was part of the second Monocacy River Paddle, a weeklong celebration by a Frederick-based conservation group that wraps up today and is intended to raise interest in one of the state's scenic rivers.

DETOUR -- In this one-street town at the confluence of Big Pipe and Little Pipe creeks in western Carroll County, the passing of time can be seen in the old photographs of floods mounted on the walls at the Village Store. One grainy black-and-white photograph shows the store's original incarnation as E. L. Warner's, with Emory Warner standing knee deep in an Aug. 24, 1933, flood. Some are older, dating to soon after the store opened at the turn of the last century. "The snow is very little trouble, compared to the floods," said Roxanne Burrier, the store's current owner, pointing to one of the photographs.

During downpours, residents of Detour have been known to run for cover -- not only from the rain, but also from tires, oil, antifreeze, fuel and sometimes entire vehicles that float down the tiny village's streets.Tucked away in a hollow where Little and Big Pipe creeks join to form Double Pipe Creek, the low-lying village in far western Carroll County has come to accept flooding as a way of life.But the problem has long been made worse by a junkyard -- the source of all manner of debris that flows downstream to the Monocacy River or into the two-block-long village.

Heavy overnight rains, joining some still-melting snow, closed two roads in the western section of Carroll County yesterday morning.Officials at the county Bureau of Roads Operation said the waters from the Monocacy River closed Keysville Frederick County Road at the county line and Baumgardner Road just off Keysville Frederick County Road.Mumma Ford Road at the county line was covered with water, and traffic was forced to move with caution along the roadway, but it was not closed.All three roads are in the Detour-Keysville area, which is known for its frequent flooding because of the Monocacy River and Big Pipe Creek nearby.